safety on account of 
early to begin to feel uneasy about their 
provisions. 
The detention of the Zira in the north is more probably due 
to her being “ beset” than to her having been ‘‘ nipped” or run 
aground. Unle-s she has foundered before stores could be got 
out of her (when nothing could be done by any search-expedi- 
tion towards enabling the crew to survive the winter), Mr. Smith 
and his men are doubtless having a fine time of it up there, in 
one sense of the words. If it came to the worst they would 
not be obliged to abandon the ship simply on account of her 
being hopelessly ‘‘ beset,” until the spring of 1883, because they 
could afford to wait for the chance of her being liberated next 
summer or autumn, ‘Then, if she were clearly inextricable, they 
would do what is done by the crews of whalers under similar 
circumstances—haul boats or sledges, laden with provisions, over 
the ice to some plice where, in the ordinary course of events, 
they could not fail to fall in with walrus-huuters, or from whence 
they might take a departure in their own boats to the most con- 
venient country. Mr. Smith, to my personal knowledge, always 
-counted upon being able to effect a safe retreat by these means, 
without unusual difficulty, if he should lose his ship: the de- 
spatch of an expedition from England in search of him never 
entered into his calculations. This will amply account for his 
not naming a rendezvous. In the Arctic regions it is best not to 
be tied down beforehand to any one voufe where there is a choice 
of several, lest if emergency arise it prove to be fro tem. pre- 
cisely the most difficult of all. 
Tn view of the above facts it appears premature to demand 
the equipment of a vessel to rescue the Zira as a matter of 
immediate urgency, although, if nothing be heard of her by this 
time next year, an expedition during the season of 1883 might be 
areasonable precaution by no means uncalled for. If people want 
a ship to be sent out next year, why should not the agitation be 
an honest one for an Arctic expedition pure and simple ? 
Thorncombe Vicarage, Chard, Dee. 3 A. E. EATon 
Helophyton Williamsonis 
At the late York meeting of the British Association two of 
ay indefatigable auxiliaries in the work of Carboniferous investi- 
gation, Mr. Wm. Cash, F.G.S., of Halifax, and Mr. Thomas 
dlick, M.A., B.Sc., of Harrogate, described, under the name 
of Hymenophylloides Williamsonis, a new stem of a plant, which 
they had obtained from the Halifax beds. This plant is an 
extremely interesting one, since its cortical layer exhibits the 
large, open, longitudinal lacunz, formed by dissociation, so 
common amongst aquatic plants. It is still more interesting 
since the septa separating the large lacune are rotate, each 
one consisting of a single layer of cells, aud the whole com- 
bining to constitute a network with vertically elongated meshes, 
‘This arrangement approaches too closely to that seen in the 
living Marsileacez, to be overlooked in considering the possible 
affinities which it may indicate. ‘The structure of the central vas- 
cular bundle as well as of its component vessels differs decidedly 
from that of the recent Marsilez and their allies. But it differs still 
more wilely from Myriophyllum, with which the generic name 
given to it by my two friends associates it. ‘This circumstance 
alone makes it important to change the name. As yet we have 
found no trace of an angiospermous phanerogam in the Car- 
boniferous beds, and any name suzgesting the probability of the 
existence of such is apt to be misleading. But apart from this 
suggestion of {mprobable affinities a second reason exists for 
changing the name, Urrger has already adopted that of Myrio- 
phyllites for a genus of Tertiary plants, and the two names 
approach too nearly to make it desirable that both should be 
retained. One point appears to be indisputable ;—The structure 
-of the bark already referred to indicates either a marsh or an 
aquatic plant—an interesting fact, since it is the first example of 
such a plant from the palawozoic rocks that has hitherto come 
under my notice. We have numerous so-called aquatic roots 
described by various authors—and possibly they may be what 
they are affirmed to be, though we have no proof that such is the 
case; but I think that no such doubts can exist in reference to 
our new plant. Under these circumstances I propose for this 
plant the generic name of //e/ophyton, a name which inyolves no 
foregone conclusions as to its botanical affinities, Detailed figures 
of it will appear in the next (12th) part of my memoirs ‘‘ On the 
Organisation of the Plants of the Coal-measures, 
Wm. C. WILLIAMSON 
Victoria University, Manchester, December 3 
The Pronunciation of Deaf-mutes who have been 
Taught to Articulate [ 
My attention has just been drawn to the remarkable statement 
of M. Hément (C. &., xciii. p. 754), that deaf-mutes who have 
been tauzht to articulate speak with the accent of their native 
district ; and to the equally remarkable letter of Mr. Wis. 
E. A. Axon, published in NATuRE (vol, xxv. p. 101), in 
support of the same proposition. 
I may say in this connection that I have during the past few 
years examined the pronunciation of at least 400 deaf mutes who 
have been taught to speak, without remarking any such tendency 
as that referred to above. It is true that in a few cases dialectic 
pronunciations are heard, but it always turns out upon investiga- 
tion that such children could talk defore they became deaf, The 
peculiarity is undoubtedly due to unconscious recollection of 
former speech, and cannot correctly be attributed to heredity. 
M. Emile Blanchard (C. 2., xciii. p. 755) has directed atten- 
tion to the harsh and disagreeable character of the utterance of 
many deaf-mutes who have been taught to articulate, but it has 
been. found in America that this can be overcome by suitable 
instruction, I am happy to be able to say that I have heard 
from congenitally deaf children perfectly distinct and agreeable 
articulation. 
The mouths of deaf children are in no way different from our 
own.? Deaf mutes do not naturally speak the language of their 
country for the same reason that we do not talk Chinese—¢hey 
have never heard the language. They are dumb simply because 
they are deaf ; and I see no reason to doubt that all deaf-mutes 
may be taught to use their vocal organs so as to speak at least 
intelligibly, if not as perfectly as those who hear. 
In mostyif not in all, of our American Institutions for the deaf 
and dumb, articulation is now taught as a special branch of 
education ; and in many of our schools all instruction is given by 
word of mouth, as it has been found that large numbers of deaf 
children can be taught to understand spoken words by watching 
the movements of the speaker’s mouth. 
So successful has articulation-teaching proved in America and 
in Europe, that dumbness will soon be universally recognised as 
a mark of neglected education. 
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, Ph.D. 
_ (Nat. Col. for Deaf Mutes, Washington) 
London, December 5 
The Function of the Ears, or the Perception of 
Direction 
IsEE the above to-day in NATURE (vol. xxiv. p. 499) as a matter 
brought before the British Association at York, and as I can for- 
ward some results of experience, I beg to send the following :— 
In the cold season of 1868 I had to cut a straight line through 
dense forest half a mile long, between two given mounds, and 
availed myself of the known capability of Asamese in telling 
direction in such cases. Placing aman on one mound to shout 
now and then, a party of us went to the other mound and- 
listened. On hearing the shouts I placed a long thin bamboo 
on the ground pointing from a peg in the direction of the shouts. 
While the men were clearing a space around I put another 
small peg in the ground, marking where the point of the 
bamboo fell. Itook the bamboo up, and made the head man 
relay it himself, which he soon did, almost exactly where I had 
pegged it; thence we cut a true straight line, setting up peeled 
rods at every 50 yards, and eventually came out at 24 feet from 
the mound, in a distance of 45 chains. The jungle was dense, 
and we could never see more than about 12 or 14 yards in front. 
Lately having moved to a place where there are five tea-gardens 
in a semicircle around me, at distances of 5, 6, 4, 44, and 4} 
miles distant, I have heard several gongs in the early morning, 
and taking the bearing of the most audible, plotted it on the 
Government map, when it came out exactly among the houses 
in the ‘station ” of the one at 4 miles; a repetition on other 
mornings confirms the direction, Distance does not seem any 
drawback, provided the sounds are loud enough ; for in the great 
* Ihave examined the vocal organs of several hundred deaf-mutes, and 
while I have observed the most extraordin differences in the size and 
shape of the palate, and in the gered of the tongue, I have observed 
the same peculiarities in the mouths of hearing children, who talk perfectly 
well. The proportion of malformation of the vocal organs among deaf-mutes 
is certainly not greater than among hearing children. We occasionally meet 
with cases of cleft-palate, of double rows of teeth, and of tongue-tie, but 
such cases are altogether exceptional, and the vast majority of deaf-mutes 
have vocal organs as perfect as our own. 
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